Planet Earth Museum

The Planet Earth Museum

Follow the extraordinary life story of planet Earth, from its earliest beginnings to the present day. The exhibition is one of the finest of its type in the country and is home to a unique collection of fossils, minerals and crystals up to 500 million years old.

Discover how planet Earth has evolved from the oldest rocks at its formation, over 4 billion years ago, to the youngest ones that are still forming today. Geological change has been constantly occurring on Earth and the process of plate tectonics has played a major role in the shaping of Earth’s continents and oceans.

For billions of years, Planet Earth was home to single celled animals before multi-cellular life appeared, followed by animals with shells around 560 million years ago. Dinosaurs evolved more than 200 million years ago and the first dinosaur fossil was discovered in Sussex by Gideon Mantel in 1834. The dinosaur zone reveals what life may have been like in Sussex over 65 million years ago.

Species on Earth have continuously evolved, taking on new forms or becoming extinct in response to our ever-changing planet. Follow the progress of man through the centuries from early man who first appeared in Europe about 60,000 years ago. The Neanderthal zone illustrates life at this time and holds an important collection of Neanderthal tools faithfully reproduced from a recent archaeological dig.

The conservation of life on Planet Earth is the greatest challenge of our time. Discover how preserving the diversity of life is essential to our lives in modern times.